SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 71 



two natives who had swum out to it. One of these, however, spfang 

 overboard in the Bahama Channel. In the summer of 1572 Menendez 

 proceeded to Axacan with three vessels and, although most of the In- 

 dians had fled to the mountains, he captured eight and rescued the boy 

 Alonso, learning through him of the fate of the other whites. Since 

 this tale implicated the Indians captured, Menendez hung them all, and, 

 as it was now late in the season, returned immediately to Havana. No 

 further attempts were made by Spaniards to colonize this part of the 

 continent. The word Axacan would probably be pronounced Ashakan 

 by a Spaniard of the period, and it is possible that it means "the land 

 of metal," having reference to the fact that trails from the northwest 

 brought copper into this part of the coastland (Lowery, 1901, pp. 359- 

 366; Kenny, 1934, pp. 269-297). 



Spanish contact with the Southeastern Indians was not confined to 

 their explorations and settlements radiating from Florida, but their 

 western sphere of influence from Mexico eastward was cut off from the 

 other for a long period by a belt of French activity which we must first 

 consider. 



The abortive but ethnologically significant efforts of French 

 Huguenots to establish themselves in South Carolina and Florida 

 have already been noted. For more than a century afterward France 

 confined herself to the colonization and exploitation of Canada, but 

 when her explorers and missionaries had penetrated from the St. 

 Lawrence River and Great Lakes into the basin of the Mississippi it 

 was almost inevitable that they should be drawn on by the courses of 

 the southward flowing streams. Moreover, it was soon evident to 

 the government of the Bourbons, under whom France had steadily 

 forged ahead since the coronation of Henry IV, that if she would 

 control the Mississippi Basin at all effectively, she must establish 

 posts all the way to the mouth of the great stream. 



After the middle of the seventeenth century, her advance toward 

 the Gulf moved steadily, though somewhat uncertainly, onward. In 

 1673 JoUiet and Marquette descended to the Mississippi and passed 

 on down it to one of the Quapaw towns near the mouth of the 

 Arkansas. In 1682, only 9 years later. La Salle passed all the way 

 to the Gulf and took possession of the whole country in the name of 

 his sovereign. In 1686 his faithful lieutenant, Tonti, repeated the 

 journey intending to meet his superior, then on the way from France. 

 La Salle and his party of colonists were, however, carried too far 

 to the west and settled on Garcitas Creek near Lavaca Bay early in 

 1685. From there the French commander made two unsuccessful 

 attempts to reach the Mississippi, and, on the second of these, he was 

 murdered by some of his companions in March 1687. Nearly all of 

 those who had been left at the fort were destroyed by the Indians, 



